New Year’s Resolutions and How to Make Them Work

Every January, people decide this is the year they’ll finally make a change. Sometimes it’s about money. Sometimes it’s about housing, family, or work. Often, it’s all of those things at once.

The intention is usually sincere. Where things tend to break down isn’t motivation; it’s the lack of a clear plan and the absence of the right guidance. Big decisions feel manageable at first, but once you start moving, it becomes obvious how connected everything is. Income affects financing. Timing affects options. One rushed decision can quietly limit what’s possible later.

Most people try to handle these decisions on their own and look for guidance wherever they can find it. They talk to friends and family. They read articles. They do deep dives online. They ask their favorite AI bot.

And the answers they receive might be helpful. Sometimes they might even be informed and accurate. This process gives us ideas and can make us feel better about our decisions. But it isn’t the same as sitting down with professionals who have deep experience and understand how these decisions will actually play out in real life.

Friends and family have context and hear your concerns, but they usually don’t have the data needed to help you make informed decisions. Online research and AI don’t see the full picture, so the guidance is limited and can even be completely wrong depending on your overall situation. These tools don’t know your timing, your income structure, or the tradeoffs you’re weighing. They can’t coordinate across legal, financial, and lending considerations. And they can’t flag the quiet consequences that often only show up months or years later.

That’s usually the point where working with the right professional, or a small team of professionals, becomes essential for these changes to work for you properly.

Clarity doesn’t come from generic advice or checklists. I’m a strong proponent of using AI to improve our lives, but it just isn’t ready to help with this level of complexity. True clarity -knowing what to do and when to do it so your vision can become reality - comes from slowing down enough to understand your specific situation and bringing in the right experts to help you navigate and implement the change you want to see.

What are you actually trying to accomplish? What needs to happen first? What decisions will affect your options later? The answers depend on whether you’re changing jobs, buying or selling a home, navigating a divorce, helping a parent move, or restructuring an investment.

One of the most common problems I see is people making the right decision at the wrong time. They quit a job before planning a home purchase. They rush through divorce paperwork without fully understanding how it affects housing and financing. They sell a property quickly because they want relief, not because it’s the best long-term move. These aren’t bad decisions. They’re just incomplete.

This is where experienced professionals add real value. Not by telling you what to do, but by helping you understand the consequences of each option. The best outcomes usually come when the right people are involved early and communication stays clear. A lender, a CPA, a financial advisor, an attorney each play a different role, and none of them should be working in isolation.

At Pomeroy Lending, we focus on how financing fits into the bigger picture. We help people understand how income, credit, property, and timing work together before decisions are locked in. Often, that means coordinating with other advisors to make sure everyone is working from the same understanding.

We work with people who are improving credit with a specific goal in mind, planning a purchase around a job change, navigating housing decisions during a divorce, helping family members transition to assisted living, or reworking investment properties that didn’t go as planned.

What we focus on is sequence. What should happen now. What can wait. What decisions preserve flexibility, and which ones quietly take it away.

Sometimes that leads to a loan. Sometimes it leads to a different plan or better timing. Either way, the goal is the same: fewer regrets and more control.

If your New Year’s resolution involves a major financial decision, the most valuable first step is often a conversation, not a commitment. Pomeroy Lending helps you understand the financing side of the picture and work alongside the right professionals so you can take the next step with clarity and confidence.

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Liana Pomeroy

Senior Mortgage Loan Advisor

NMLS #295506 | Powered by Xpert Home Lending NMLS #2179191

Equal Housing Lender | Licensed in CO, FL, CA, TN & TX

All loans subject to approval. Conditions apply.